1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to ordnance. More particularly, the present invention is directed toward bombs and warheads that may be carried by airplanes or in missiles, loaded with a payload. The payload may comprise a chemical and/or biological defeating lethal system.
2. State of the Art
In the discussion of the state of the art that follows, reference is made to certain structures and/or methods. However, the following references should not be construed as an admission that these structures and/or methods constitute prior art. Applicant expressly reserves the right to demonstrate that such structures and/or methods do not qualify as prior art against the present invention.
In the course of waging an armed campaign, one needs to destroy and/or otherwise render useless to the enemy his resources to continue such campaign. Ordnance has been developed to efficiently accomplish this task including warheads, bombs, projectiles, explosives, or other means. A typical warhead configuration includes a hard casing which carries a payload material. The hard casing often includes a substantially elongated cylindrical body with an ogive shaped nose section. Such warheads can be deployed by cruise or ballistic missiles or by release from an aircraft, but are not limited to such deployment.
One critical need has been to destroy resources housed within structures fortified by burial, concrete, rock, steel or other hardened materials. One type of ordnance designed to defeat such resources is commonly known as a hard target penetrating warhead. A hard target penetrating warhead is designed to penetrate a hardened structural defense and deliver a main explosive payload to the interior of the structure. Examples of such current conventional warheads are the BLU-109, BLU-113, BLU-116, the JASSM-1000, the J-1000 and the JAST-1000 warheads.
The widespread dissemination of weapons of mass destruction based on chemical or biological agents has compounded the difficulty in targeting and successfully destroying hardened targets that contain such chemical or biological agents. The following offers a perspective to the urgency of the need to suppress collateral damage caused by the escape of biological agents from a storage bunker attacked by a conventional hard target penetrating warhead.
Live or viable biological and/or chemical agents in the dry or wet states or liquid may be aerosolized by impact of the warhead inside the bunker and expelled to the atmosphere through the warhead entrance hole, a problem that may be exacerbated by operation of an explosive warhead. Biological warfare agents such as Anthrax mixed with an anti-agglomerate could easily have a spore count of 109 spores per gram of agent. If 100 kilograms of agent were stored in facilities such as those discussed (e.g., hardened bunkers), then 100 grams of viable agent could be found in an ejected cloud caused by detonation of the main payload of a hard target penetrating warhead inside the bunker. That is to say nearly 1011 spores would be released to the atmosphere. If it is assumed that 104 spores per gram constitute a lethal human dose (approximating the accepted value of 8,000 spores being lethal to 50% of the exposed population), then this scenario suggests that the ejected cloud could cause 5,000,000 deaths. For this reason, the ejected cloud retains its lethal character for many tens of kilometers as it is transported downwind.
Therefore, there is a need not addressed in the prior art to neutralize dangerous chemical and biological agents inside targets, in the vicinity of targets, and during expulsion from the targets which are attacked by a hard target penetrating warhead.
The prior art in this field generally speaks to the delivery of active biological and/or chemical agents to the enemy and not to the delivery of neutralizing agents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,520 to Bowen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,661,083 to Weimholt and U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,602 to Gey et al. are representative of such devices.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,143,070 to Bowen, the incorporation of a neutralizing agent into a safe biological or chemical projectile is discussed. The neutralizing agent is designed to allow for the safe handling of the projectile and to be xe2x80x9cblown offxe2x80x9d before a second noxious agent is deployed. The neutralizing agent is utilized as an internal safety feature and is not conceived, nor can it be used, to deliver a neutralizing agent to a hard target. In other respects, this device acts to dispense toxic or poisonous aerosols in the free air above the surface of the target upon contact with the target.
Prior practices known in the state of the art do not address the problem of the release of dangerous agents during impact of a warhead into a target. The present invention utilizes a very high mass flow gas generator device incorporated into a hard target penetrating warhead that releases hot, sterilizing gases while penetrating hardened targets and functions both while penetrating the target""s protection and continues to function inside the target and, as so described, the proposed invention adds a key functionality to a hard target penetrating warhead that carries explosives, incendiaries or neutralizers as a separate main payload.
The present invention comprises a gas generating assembly which houses a gas generant which produces a sterilizing gas. An igniter is positioned so as to initiate combustion of the gas generant upon impact on the exterior of the target and which may further cause activation of the main weapon payload. The construction of the warhead and the agent defeat warhead device includes venting ports for the release of the gases which are the combustion product of the gas generating assembly.